While the average length of a business-related video was found to be 8 minutes, the majority of videos produced by businesses are 2 minutes or less in length, with 21% being up to a minute long and another 35% being 1-2 minutes long. Not surprisingly, shorter videos hold viewers’ attention the longest: those less than 90 seconds long had a completion rate of 53%, compared to a 10% completion rate for the longest videos (at least 30 minutes).

There appears to be a substantial drop-off in video engagement at the start of a business-related video. For videos at least half an hour in length, just 39% of viewers make it to the 10% mark. Even for short videos (under 90 seconds), 87% make it one-tenth of the way. In other words, about 1 in 8 viewers stop watching a short video before 10 seconds are up.

For videos that are in the 95th percentile in terms of engagement, completion rates are obviously far higher, hitting 99% for the shortest videos. Interestingly, for longer high-engagement videos, the completion rate stays relatively high throughout 90% of the video, but then drops precipitously after that. For example, for high-engagement videos at least half an hour long, 60% of viewers make it through 90% of the video, but only 43% finish it. The analysts theorize that wrap-up content, such as webinar Q&A, could have something to do with that result.

In other results from the study:

Business-related video views are highest in the middle of the week, with Wednesdays (18%) seeing the highest share of weekly views;

The most popular time of the week for viewing business-related videos is Wednesday between 7AM and 11AM PST; and

About the Data: The data is based on anonymized video publishing data for over 500 businesses and nearly 250,000 videos at the end of November 2016. It also includes anonymized viewership and engagement data from more than 600 million video streams over a 12 month period.